40 weeks

7. jul

40 weeks have come and gone.  sigh...

BABY'S SIZE     a watermelon!  20 ish inches and 7 ish pounds.  

HOW I'M FEELING     now i'm ready.  and baby doesn't seem to be.  taking its sweet, sweet time.  if that's what it needs, it can have an extra few days I GUESS!  

WHAT I'M EATING     i had a chicken salad sandwich and mckalister's and i CAN NOT stop thinking about it.  it was sooo amazing!  also, i really really really just want to drink coke.  with ice.  through a straw.

HOW I'M CHANGING  my brain is ready.  my belly cannot possibly budge another centimeter.  and my patience is being stretched to unthought of boundaries.

MOVEMENT     baby is moving a ton.  i did acupuncture this week, because they say it helps induce labor naturally.  throughout each entire appointment baby was just wiggling and wiggling away.  so apparently it does something!  the acupuncturist told me that the belief is that if acupuncture doesn't induce, they most definitely do not induce labor, because that baby is meant for greatness and it is very very bad to change that baby's stars/astrology.  the future looks bright for this baby of ours.

SLEEP     how can i sleep when there is a chance that baby could come at any minute??    

THINGS THIS WEEK     this week has been dedicated to doing all the things that will help get me ready to deliver baby.  walking, bouncing on a yoga ball, drinking red raspberry leaf tea, eating dates, the list goes on.  so far, nothing.    

LOOKING FORWARD TO     baby.  that is all.

FUN FACT     lungs are even more developed and super prepared to get breathing.

oni and eda being themselves:

making sure everything is going ok in the bathroom

guarding the crib with her life

39 weeks

30. jun

BABY'S SIZE     a pumpkin!  almost 20 inches and 7-9 ish pounds, so they say.  

HOW I'M FEELING     aaaaalllmost ready.  she offered to do this "procedure" in the office to help get things going and i wasn't quite ready for that.  turns out i'm not dilated, so she wouldn't have been able to do it anyway.

WHAT I'M EATING     in the mood for FRESH.  fruits and veggies, please!  and cereal.    

HOW I'M CHANGING     i think at this point we know my belly will continue to grow forever.  this week, i think i'm getting ready mentally.  this baby is really coming.  and it's coming soon!  and i'm almost ready for it!  

MOVEMENT     lots and lots of wiggles.    

SLEEP     i am only surviving because of naps.

THINGS THIS WEEK     i got a pedicure so i have pretty toes to look at while pushing.  hah

LOOKING FORWARD TO     meeting this baby of ours!  i'm ready to know boy or girl.  i'm ready for some serious baby snuggles.  

FUN FACT     baby can flex its limbs.  baby's nails probably extend past the fingertips.

38 weeks

23. jun

BABY'S SIZE     a winter melon! (i have no idea what that is).  19 inches and 6-9 ish pounds, so the app says.

HOW I'M FEELING     getting close to feeling ready but not quite.  i don't think nesting has really hit.  i'm taking that as my biggest sign that things are about to happen.  guess baby wants to wait too.    

WHAT I'M EATING     i feel like other than cereal, the cravings are kind of stopping - the few that i had.  i feel like i'm eating pretty normal.

HOW I'M CHANGING     somehow, my belly keeps growing and growing.  the waddling is definitely becoming more pronounced.  at my last ob checkup, she told me that baby is sitting super low, and she was surprised that i wasn't feeling more pelvic pressure.  i think that is a good thing for when labor actually starts.  baby is already in position!

MOVEMENT     baby is a wild thing.  always wiggling and kicking and rolling.  the rolls feel the weirdest.  my belly starts to feel really tight and then suddenly there is a giant lump moving across it (usually the baby's booty!)

SLEEP     i'm taking lots of naps.  i can't sleep very long at a time - usually 4 hours is max, so naps are key.  

THINGS THIS WEEK     i started precepting a new girl at work, which means that i get to get paid extra to teach her how to do everything, and i sit around while she takes all the patients.  a nice, relaxing way to work my last few weeks before maternity leave!
i've been swimming a lot lately, too.  it feels so nice to be weightless for a while.  the getting out part is always rough though.

LOOKING FORWARD TO     today, i am looking forward to seeing everyone who is planning on coming after the baby arrives (who knows how i will feel about it tomorrow! hah!)

FUN FACT     baby could already have an inch of hair.  the head is about the same circumference as the abdomen.

trying to take artsy photos in the pool, but my belly kept getting in the way

37 weeks

16. jun

BABY'S SIZE     a romaine lettuce!  18.5 to 20 inches and 6 to 9 pounds (yikes!).

HOW I'M FEELING     thursday was a rough night at work.  it was the first night i've wished i could take some time off before baby is born.  although, honestly, i would probably just laze around and sleep all the time.  it's probably better for me to waddle my way through a few 12 hour shifts a week.

WHAT I'M EATING     i've been on a fruit kick.  for our barbecue, i made a fruit salad with a little bit of honey, lime juice, and lime zest in it, and it is fabulous.

HOW I'M CHANGING     let me just say again:  there is no way that my belly can keep growing.

MOVEMENT     so much movement.  i kind of like the stretches.  sometimes when i push on baby's booty (baby is definitely head down), i can feel pressure on the other side of my uterus.  it's weird!

SLEEP     i finally had a REALLY good night (it was actually day, between shifts) of sleep.  i woke up once to pee, but went right back to sleep (usually i need a snack, or lay awake for a while first).  i felt SO good at work.  it was so nice.

THINGS THIS WEEK     we had our barbecue.  i think it was successful.  arley and i always joke about trying not to be too weird, so we can make friends (we might just be too weird...).  but we might have made some friends.  they are due a week before us, which is kind of cool.
also, i had another dream.  i had just delivered and was reaching out to the baby to put it on my chest.  the weird part is that i had the exact same dream twice.  once the baby was a boy and once the baby was a girl.  even my sub conscience isn't helping me out.
i'm having weekly ob appointments now.  this week, the doctor checked my dilation.  i'm zero percent dilated, but i guess baby's head is super duper low - down by my pubic bone.  she didn't believe me when i said i didn't feel any pressure.
it's been quite the week.  weather has been in the 100s most days, our swamp cooler (i think that must be a new mexico thing) broke, and so arley had to run around crazy all day, while i tried to sleep for work, trying to fix it.  arley got sick.  oni walked underneath arley's feet one too many times and got stepped on.  she's been limping around all sad, and is mad at us for not letting her go outside.  eda finally got to go on a walk (i just can't seem to force myself to take her when it's 95 degrees at 7 pm) and we got rained out.  so not only did her walk get cut shot, but she got wet.

LOOKING FORWARD TO     i have a few days off in a row this week, so hopefully i can get myself motivated enough to work on the nursery.  [it did not happen.  arley got sick and in solidarity, i laid around all week with him.  as a good wife, i pretty much had no choice.]
i got some cool shelves that hold books like art against the wall, rather than spine out like a book shelf.  arley decided that we should mount them to a board or something and not straight to the wall so not so many holes go into his precious, fresh-painted walls.  i'm starting to visualize what i want, and am getting excited about it, so hopefully we have time to put it together!

FUN FACT     baby is inhaling, exhaling, sucking, gripping, and blinking.  baby is also working on that first, super fun tar poop, called meconium.  baby is supposedly gaining about half a pound a week.

36 weeks

9. jun

BABY'S SIZE     a papaya!  17 to 18.5 inches and 4 to 5.5 pounds.

HOW I'M FEELING     still trucking along.  everyone keeps asking me if i'm ready to be done.  other than feeling more than tired, and with squished ribs/lungs after work, and other than the whole sleep thing, i feel pretty good.  i'll cook this baby as long as it needs.  full 40!  (that means i have more time to get ready, too!)

WHAT I'M EATING     i've still been getting a salad every night i work.  for some reason, i love their ranch dressing.  it's a little thinner/runnier than normal ranch.  something about it makes my belly happy.

HOW I'M CHANGING     somehow, my belly is still growing.  it might just explode any second.

MOVEMENT     did i mention that i did kick counts for about 2 days when they recommended i start?  the expectation is to have 4 kicks in an hour during baby's 2 most active times of the day.  my 4 kicks happen in about 1 minute.  and happen many more times than twice a day.  this baby moves so much that i would be concerned if it only wiggled 4 times in an hour twice a day.

SLEEP     i feel like a beached turtle.  you know, the ones stuck on their backs?  i have to roll from side to side a lot to keep my hips from hurting too much.  and it is really hard.

THINGS THIS WEEK     i had my first fun (and by fun, i mean terrible) experience with a mouthy grandma at wall-mart.  i was standing in line to checkout and she comes to stand next to me and says, "aww, how cute.  when are you due?"  i said, "in about a month."  "oh," she says, as she looks me up and down, "you look like you're due now."  and i just looked at her.  honestly, i'm surprised it's taken this long for the comments to start (other than work, when i get told, "you look enormous!").  

LOOKING FORWARD TO     we're having some real live friends (potential friends) over next week for some swimming and some barbecuing.  i don't think we've ever officially had anyone come over that wasn't family.  kind of exciting!

FUN FACT     baby's skin is getting smooth and soft, and gums are becoming rigid (i guess that's a thing...).  baby's size means less amniotic fluid - movements are supposed to be feeling "different."  fewer kicks because of less space.